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Sunday, February 02, 2014

Things That Simply Aren't Done

(That Craig Walker Does)

My mother, father, and niece are visiting us from the US. We just got back from a lovely trip to Oman (Sterling's first trip to a foreign country! Other than the one in which he was born!), which I will post about another day.

My dad has been shocking everyone's sensibilities lately. Craig Walker is an anomaly even in the US, but here it is even easier for him to make waves. In this country, as in any other country, there are certain things in certain contexts that aren't done by certain people. (For example, many times in this country, it is strange or atypical that I don't have a nanny.) Craig Walker is meeting those challenges head-on. For example, since he has been here, my dad has:

1. ridden on his bike to a local restaurant to pick up our takeaway meal. Simply Not Done.

2. ridden on his bike to the Sharjah Airport to pick up our rental car. Simply Not Done.

3. returned a stray cart in the grocery store parking lot to its proper place. Simply Not Done. He probably gave the parking lot attendant a heart attack. I could practically hear the whispers: who IS that man?

Speaking of the rental car (#2), how is this for turning a common problem here on its head: during the extensive rental car arrangements, my dad had the hardest time understanding the (Indian) accent of the rental car employee. He would have to ask the poor man to repeat everything he said multiple times, or he would hand the phone to me to figure out what was being said. At one point, the rental car guy called us back about some issue or other and although I answered the phone, I almost immediately offered to pass the call off to my father.

But the rental car guy begged, "no no no no no! Your father doesn't understand me! I'll just talk to you!" So the joke was kind of on us.

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We've been in and out of Russia, the Middle East, and the United States since 2001, with one summer at the Middlebury Arabic School in Vermont. We used to live in Tucson and also spent one glorious year in Upstate New York. Current adventure: Sharjah, UAE.